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Galaxy S3 Alpha runs Jelly Bean with built-in multi-window support

A few days ago we told you that NTT DoCoMo will offer its subscribers in Japan two new Samsung smartphones, the Galaxy Note 2 and the Galaxy S3 Alpha, with the latter being an updated version of the regular Galaxy S3.

The updates include a 1.6GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos 4412 processor and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean under the hood right out of the box, although all other Galaxy S3 versions will soon get their software upgrade – in fact Galaxy S3 buyers in some European countries have already received.

But the Galaxy S3 Alpha seems to have a hidden feature in its Jelly Bean build. Apparently Japanese buyers will get access to Samsung’s multi-window feature, the kind of functionality that we have only seen so far on the company’s recent Note-branded products including the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet and the Galaxy Note 2 phablet. In fact, some versions of the Galaxy Note 2 launched without the multi-window support, a “feature” that was corrected by Samsung in a firmware update.

As you can see in the following video, the Galaxy S3 Alpha has no problem switching between windows, and we’re definitely curious to see regular whether international Galaxy S3 version will also be able to take advantage of the feature once Jelly Bean comes out.

Let’s hear it from you, regular Galaxy S3 buyers, do you want multi-window on your smartphone, or the feature really isn’t that big of a deal for you?